This invention is related to teaching apparatuses and more particularly to an apparatus directed to the correction of perceptual learning problems such as dyslexia.
Dyslexia is generally manifested by reversals. For example, a dyslectic might have trouble distinguishing between a "b" and a "d" or a "b" and a "q". Common manifestations of dyslexia as a reading disability occur as a difficulty in inability to distinguish words such as "was" and "saw" or "boys" and "dogs". A dyslectic might write "and" as "dna"; "with" as "whte" or "its" as "ist".
Dyslexia is generally easily detected through an individual's perceptual-motor activities. It may, for example, be observed in any or all of the following: poor ability to reproduce rhythm in sequence; cramped, slowly done or very messy handwriting; frequent miscopying a word in one place while copying correctly in another; making letter and number formations from down to up or from right to left; starting at the wrong place but perhaps ending with the correct symbol; persistently and habitually reversing some letters and/or some numbers, for example, as illustrated above; poor motor coordination either in using play equipment or in manipulating small objects in the classroom or at home; and holding the pencil in a clumsy way when writing, etc. It may also be readily discernible through observations of perceptual abilities and orientation or speech or language behavior.
One known method of training or educating a dyslectic is by working to improve perceptual motor activities and perceptual abilities and orientation. One known useful form of exercise for improving perceptual abilities is tracing. Various exercises are known in the art whereby the dyslectic child is supplied with various lesson materials and is asked to make tracings in one or more colors. One recognized method, referred to as the "Orton-Gillingham Method", requires the pupil to sound out and trace the visually printed word. One aspect of another method for teaching reading, the so-called Montessori method, involves tactile tracing of letters until writing is spontaneous. Other exercises employing tracings to correct and overcome difficulties observed in freehand copying of stimulus design are also known. For example, and as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,349, a teaching method and apparatus has been proposed wherein the dyslectic student is asked to trace material appearing on a lesson plan which is initially clearly visible but which gradually receeds from view so that the dyslectic must reproduce from memory all or at least a further portion of the remaining subject matter not reproduced by tracing.